Hundreds of Macs in the US were infected with creepy malware that let hackers spy on you

The INSIDER Summary:

The amount of malware targeting Macs has grown at a frightening rate in recent years.

The latest reported case might be one of the scariest ones yet.

A malware called Fruitfly, which is shut down for now, reportedly let hackers find out your exact location and name, switch on your webcam and microphone, and more.

In addition, the latest versions of Mac's operating systems are protected against all known strains of Fruitfly.

It's a common belief that Macs can't get viruses. That's probably one of the reasons you bought a Mac in the first place, especially if you switched over from a Windows computer like I did.

However, the amount of malware targeting Macs has actually grown at a frightening rate over the past years. In 2016 alone, instances of Mac-specific malware grew by 744%, according to Business Insider.

Just earlier this year, security firm Malwarebytes discovered Mac malware that was reportedly spying on computers in biomedical research centers. Apple quickly released a security update to protect against the malware, which the company dubbed Fruitfly.

On July 21, former NSA analyst Patrick Wardle found a new strain of the malicious code on about 400 Macs — 90% of which are in the US. However, that's "likely only ... a limited percentage of the total number of victims," Wardle told Forbes.

Luckily, the entire Fruitfly malware net appears to be shut down right now, according to Wardle, who contacted law enforcement agents about his findings.

In addition, Mac computers that are running the latest versions of macOS 10.12 or OS X 10.11 El Capitan are protected against all known strains of the virus, an Apple representative told Laptop Mag.

This time around, Fruitfly reportedly allowed hackers to find out your exact location and name, switch on your webcam and microphone, control your mouse, change your personal files, take screenshots, record your keystrokes, and more.

If that's not creepy enough, Wardle, who is now the chief security researcher at cybersecurity firm Synack, told Mashable that the malware didn't seem to be "designed for financial gain." Instead, Wardle believes that Fruitfly was built specifically to "spy on users for probably perverse reasons."

Usually, this type of code is seen in "government or nation-state software," Wardle explained, but the victims he found weren't "nation-state actors," but rather just "everyday folks."

In the meantime, the best way to protest yourself is to always make sure your desktop and server operating systems are always up to date.